On October 29, 2011, Ashley Sanders presented “Rights-based Movements to End Corporate Rule” at the Salt Lake City Bioneers Conference at Westminster College.
Ashley talked about the history of corporations and how they have gained political power.
“The corporate form is not inevitable,” says Ashley. It exists because we accept it.
During the first 75 years of the United States, corporations were only allowed to exist for a certain period of time – as little as three years for banks – and they had to get their charters from state government after proving that the corporation would be doing something good for the people.
In a headnote to Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad Company in 1886, the Supreme Court told the lawyers that they considered corporations to be people and that was not a point that would be argued during that case.
Couple that with the Citizens United Case from 2010 where the Supreme Court ruled that money is speech, and corporations have all of the rights that people have. Yet corporations cannot go to jail, they can exist forever and they do not need to worry about health or progeny.
“We do not have a functioning democracy in the United States,” says Ashley.
Aside from lawsuits, regulations and changes in consumer behavior, there is no check on corporate power.
“The only thing that you can do is fight them on details for the rest of your life,” says Ashley.
In order for people to regain the power that corporations have taken, the country needs a fundamental cultural shift like the one that occurred at the abolition of slavery.
“You have to believe that democracy is possible,” says Ashley.
Move to Amend is one organization that she recommended as a group working to foster a better society for everyone.
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